A gas turbine shroud assembly usually includes a plurality of shroud segments disposed circumferentially one adjacent to another, to form a shroud ring circling a turbine rotor. Being exposed to very hot gasses, the turbine shroud assembly usually needs to be cooled. Since flowing coolant through the shroud diminishes overall engine performance, it is typically desirable to minimize cooling flow consumption without degrading shroud segment durability. Heretofore, efforts have been made to prevent undesirable cooling flow leakage and to provide adequate distribution of cooling flow to segment parts having elevated temperatures such as the platforms of the shroud segments. Nevertheless, in conventional cooling arrangements in turbine shroud assemblies, according to thermal analysis, relatively hot spots can occur, for example on opposite side edges of the segment platform, which adversely affect shroud segment durability.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved turbine shroud assembly which addresses these and other limitations of the prior art.